By Recto Mercene
AVIATION authorities would implement in March this year a new scheme to address flight delays by adopting a more efficient implementation of the current policy on flight movements per hour.
The present traffic-movement scheme calls for 40 airplanes to land and takeoff every hour. Any aircraft beyond that number has to wait.
This is the reason we see airplanes flying over the designated holding pattern waiting for their turn to land.
Those running out of fuel or those airplanes that do not want to wait more than 30 minutes simply fly to Clark field in Pampanga, only 15 minutes away, and wait until their turn to come back and land at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia).
The Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa) and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) announced that in March, 10 flight movements would be grouped into 15-minute block periods to ensure compliance with the policy of having a maximum of 40 movements per hour.
“The 40 movements per hour had been in effect before, but the new measure would entail more detailed monitoring and rather than looking at it from an hourly basis, the Miaa-Caap will focus on the 15-minute periods,” Naia Spokesman David de Castro said.
The authorities discussed the new scheme with the Civil Aeronautics Board and with executives of domestic airlines.
Scheduled arriving and departing flights beyond 10-movements-per-block time will be retimed and accommodated in the next quarter-hour, de Castro said.
On the other hand, flights unable to meet their original schedule will be retimed to the next block period to guarantee the on-time performance of other flights, he added.
Airline executives, such as Philippine Airlines (PAL) President Jaime J. Bautista, PAL Express Vice President for Ground Operations Bryan Lim, Cebu Pacific Chief Executive Advisor Garry Kingshott, Cebgo President Michael Shau and Air Asia Zest Chairman Maan Hontiveros, agreed to the new measure, but they requested more time to review how to align their internal procedures with the new measure.
Naia General Manager Jose Angel Honrado thanked the airline executives, saying it is high time that the authorities and the airlines set aside differences to enhance the experience of every passenger through effective collaboration.
Further consultations will be conducted by the Miaa with foreign airlines and its slot coordinator, the Airport Coordination Australia, to finalize the said measure.
Meanwhile, security personnel of the Miaa is scheduled to undergo refresher courses on airport security from the Australian government’s Office for Transport Security (Aus-OTS) this month.
From February 10 to 19, the Aus-OTS will conduct a Quality-Control Inspector Course which will be attended by 20 Miaa personnel from the Airport Police Department, the Intelligence and Access Management Department and the Airport Security Inspectorate Office.
The course is designed to enhance the skills of airport inspectors in conducting internal quality-control activities, the Miaa said.
The course will include a review of techniques related to surveillance and information gathering. Modules on documentation and reporting will also be tackled for security planning and coordination activities.
The same batch of security personnel attended the Aviation Security Refresher Course, also sponsored by the Aus-OTS, last week.
The training covered airport procedures on proper access control, perimeter security, passenger and cargo screening, baggage handling and passenger profiling.
Funding for this activity is shouldered by the Aus-OTS under the Philippine Aviation Security Training Assistance program.
Honrado thanked the Australian government for the joint partnership.
“There is no better way to highlight the importance of airport security than to conduct trainings with our very own partners in aviation security. We thank the Australian government for this,” Honrado said.
More than 2000 Philippine aviation security personnel have received training from the Aus-OTS since 2006.
The Australian government considers the Miaa a key partner in aviation security being the operator of a last port of call to Australia.